*** NEW *** BIN LADEN *** SCARE ***

[Patriot Acts]

Is this the great Gannon getaway? ...or diverting attention away from bloodshed in Iraq?


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047304/

Bin Laden message to Iraq insurgent reported intercepted Officials say it instructs al-Zarqawi to attack U.S. targets outside Iraq

By Jim Miklaszewski
Correspondent
NBC News


Updated: 8:13 p.m. ET Feb. 28, 2005WASHINGTON - The United States has intercepted a message believed to be from fugitive al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, instructing the leader of the Iraqi insurgency to expand his operations and begin attacking U.S. targets outside Iraq, intelligence officials told NBC News on Monday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the message was obtained within the past several weeks and prompted the Department of Homeland Security to send a bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies.

The officials refused to reveal exactly how the message from bin Laden to al-Zarqawi was intercepted.


Message described as ‘quite vague’

A U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the message was “quite vague” and did not instruct al-Zarqawi to carry out attacks inside the United States. Instead, it discussed the need to begin planning operations “outside Iraq,” the official said.

The Homeland Security bulletin did not mention the specifics of the intercepted message, but restated al-Qaida’s interest in attacking targets inside the United States, the officials said.


MORE>>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047304/

[paineinthearse]

1. Boo!

[still_one]

2. yeah well bush had an opportunity to get al-Zarqawi

THREE TIMES before invading Iraq, but decided against it because he wanted to do Iraq first

What do they say about a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

[Journeyman]

3. I've always said a brain in the hand is worth two in a Bush. . .

n/t

[Colorado Blue]

4. Countdown said this news is maybe as much as weeks old

and Keith was questioning, OK, why publish it TODAY? He actually wondered if it was to deflect attention from the terrible bombing in Iraq.

Shows how much folks trust the admin.

Either way it was a Bad Day - feel sick about Iraq.

[oasis]

5. Olberman asked the question: A distraction from the recent Iraq bombing?

[napi21]

6. I suspect it to hide something, but who knows what.

It doesn't say it in this post, but when I heard this earlier today, they said this message was intercepted several weeks ago. Couldn't decide if it meant US interests outside of Iraq or the USA.

I thought it was interesting that the intercept was several weeks ago, but announced today.

I'm sure it's a diversion for something, but who knows what. I don't think it's Gannon. Gannon is disposable. Might be Tom DeLay trial in Tx, the SS fiasco, rumblings about medicare going broke far before SS. Don't know. We'll have to pay close attention to the stuff below the radar for a few days and see.

[Patriot Acts]

15. its build up to THE DRAFT

.....one way of the other, we are going to find out what they are up to.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Heard about the scare on the news. Was wondering what they were

trying to distract from....Social Security? Iraq? Iran? Lebanon? Europe? Gannon? Something we have not even heard about yet?

[Patriot Acts]

9. how about all fo the above?

[CoffeeCat]

8. Was this message....

...written on White House stationery?

[nashville_brook]

10. you can be sure it's a diversion

they can use it on ALL fronts.

[Patriot Acts]

11. Is Keith the only one reporting this story?

...is the military news covering this story too?

[DesEtoiles]

12. Only question is who wrote it - Rove or Hughes?

[Patriot Acts]

13. maybe Wolfy worte it......

I'm having a hard time finding anything else about it online. I did see a quick blip on Fox "news" and thats about it.

[Patriot Acts]

14. PNAC at it again???

http://www.newamericancentury.org/defense-20050128.htm


Letter to Congress on Increasing U.S. Ground Forces
January 28, 2005

Dear Senator Frist, Senator Reid, Speaker Hastert, and Representative Pelosi:

The United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume. Those responsibilities are real and important. They are not going away. The United States will not and should not become less engaged in the world in the years to come. But our national security, global peace and stability, and the defense and promotion of freedom in the post-9/11 world require a larger military force than we have today. The administration has unfortunately resisted increasing our ground forces to the size needed to meet today's (and tomorrow's) missions and challenges.

So we write to ask you and your colleagues in the legislative branch to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps. While estimates vary about just how large an increase is required, and Congress will make its own determination as to size and structure, it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years.


<snip>


Respectfully,

Peter Beinart Jeffrey Bergner Daniel Blumenthal
Max Boot Eliot Cohen Ivo H. Daalder
Thomas Donnelly Michele Flournoy Frank F. Gaffney, Jr.
Reuel Marc Gerecht Lt. Gen. Buster C. Glosson (USAF, retired)
Bruce P. Jackson Frederick Kagan Robert Kagan
Craig Kennedy Paul Kennedy Col. Robert Killebrew (USA, retired)
William Kristol Will Marshall Clifford May
Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (USA, retired) Daniel McKivergan
Joshua Muravchik Steven J. Nider Michael O'Hanlon
Mackubin Thomas Owens Ralph Peters Danielle Pletka
Stephen P. Rosen Major Gen. Robert H. Scales (USA, retired)
Randy Scheunemann Gary Schmitt
Walter Slocombe James B. Steinberg R. James Woolsey


http://www.newamericancentury.org/defense-20050128.htm

[Swamp Rat]

16. Trotting out the bogeyman because Gannon's still in the news?

Will they claim Osama's in Syria now?

Will Americans grow a brain?

[Patriot Acts]

18. Maybe they will grow one collective brain...

...like the Borg on Star Trek! ;)

[Swamp Rat]

19. HAHA! But they already ARE Borg-like!

One TV channel - one brain.

[0rganism]

17. What, is the Patriot Act up for renewal already?

How time does fly. It seems like only a few short months ago Osama Bin Laden was making cameos on the Election Circuit, and he's back again so soon. Truly, he is the gift that keeps on giving (to bush)

[Sapphire Blue]

20. Obviously, a convenient distraction

since the “officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the message was obtained within the past several weeks...”

Distraction from what? Whatever might be detrimental to their cause.

Isn’t it amazing how those bin Laden tapes & messages seem to be released to the public at such convenient times? And we get only bits & pieces?


For anyone interested, a link to the full transcript of bin Laden's speech, circa the 2004 election:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm